By: Matt Fotia
It has been a massive week in the Eastern Football League with the finals calculators out in force. It’s all about who’s back in the mix, who’s fallen out of the mix and everything else in between. Here’s five things we learnt from the weekend’s action…
Tiger-train runs out of steam
At half time in the weekend’s clash with Rowville, Balwyn looked set to lock up its eighth victory of the year, knocking off its main rival for the final spot in the five.
The Tigers then went on to lose the second half eight goals to one, courtesy of Jackson McDonald who finished with two goals in his best afield performance. The Tigers finished the day in seventh place, (thanks to the free-wheeling Wooders) both percentage and a couple of games behind their counterparts in the top five.
The Tigers may wish that they could go back and rethink their assessment of season 2017 once again. The Tigers must have believed that they were on the precipice of another premiership after their second-placed finished last season, perhaps blaming their straight-sets exit on the injuries that ravaged their list. Balwyn evidenced this belief when it parted ways with then-coach Marty Pask in January for now-coach Rodney Eade.
In hindsight it seems that the Tigers had overestimated the strength of their list and their likelihood of winning the premiership.
Add onto this the no doubt sizeable cost of Eade’s services and the ever-increasing power of the EFL’s points system (limiting the number of ‘recruits’ in a playing 22) and the Tigers may have missed a trick. Rather than move with the times, and perhaps put their premiership ambitions on the backburner for a few seasons to help improve homegrown depth, the Tigers have thrown all their eggs in one basket. Unfortunately for them, their basket isn’t quite big enough this time around.
Dees send the Roos down under
After its come-from-behind victory over East Ringwood last weekend, Montrose was in the box-seat to take its place at the Premier Division table next season.
The Roos would be forced to pinch another unlikely victory against a side well above them on the table, or defeat Noble Park, as they had done earlier in the season. But as Saturday afternoon’s action came to a close, it seems all but official that East Ringwood will not be in the top division as of 2019, with the Demons defeating North Ringwood by five goals at home.
Jordan Bastinac continued his good form with two goals and best on ground honours, whilst Billy Schilling again hit the scoreboard in the Demons’ win, with two majors of his own, as Montrose wrapped up the result with an 11-goal-to-three scoreline in the first half.
The Demons can now focus on building for season 2019, practising new plans, debuting new players and most importantly playing with a freedom that may not have been there for a few years now. As we’ve seen with Croydon in Division 2, that freedom can do a myriad of things and we could see Montrose pinching a few more wins in the back end of the season, having their own little influence on that all important top five.
The mix and Mulgrave breaks the duck
Division 2 is constantly remarked as the most even division in the Eastern Football League and whilst the clear divisions on the ladder may not make that statement entirely true, we do find ourselves with an incredible four teams in the mix for the final spot in the four with just five weeks left in the regular season.
Lilydale, Doncaster East and Upper Ferntree Gully have at bare minimum locked up finals footy, and with a three-game buffer on fourth you expect them to have locked up the top three spots. They’ll battle it out for the top-two over the next month or so.
Lilydale hosts Wantirna South this weekend. PICTURE: Garry Sparke
However, results around the divisions have seen the finals race blown wide open. Croydon’s come-from-behind away victory over Bayswater puts it at 6-6, just four points behind its latest conquest in the finals race.
Park Orchards stunned the Falcons, ending its dodgy run of form to grab a seventh win of the year, youngster Jane Witnish best on ground, which now leaves the Sharks in fifth on percentage, whilst Wantirna South did the business over Mitcham, and despite having been written off countless times in this column, also finds itself just percentage behind Bayswater.
The Blues are on a strong run of form, but their poor percentage means they won’t have much room for error. Bayswater and Wantirna South are impossible to pick, whilst Park Orchards has steadied after its wobble. I’ve still got the Sharks pinching that fourth spot, as I detailed in the mid-season report cards. Don’t take it as gospel however because Division 2 still has a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
A special note to those out at Mulgrave Reserve. It’s been a tough year for the Lions playing on their back oval, the whipping boys of the division this season.
When they came into the main break 27 points down to Mooroolbark, you could be forgiven for thinking it was the same old story playing out again.
But the Lions became the 41st side to register a win across the league on the weekend, kicking six goals to one in the second half, with George Alepidis best on ground. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Mulgrave, who will no doubt be back in thick of it in 2019.
Bears close, but still no cigar
All season The Basin has showed the signs of a team ready to take the next step. The Bears have defeated everyone below them on the table, run the top side close twice and were five points down to Boronia at half time on the weekend at Batterham Reserve. They fell by the wayside once again, losing to the Hawks by 18 points. It leaves them two games behind Heathmont in fourth, with their hopes of a home final all but gone.
The Bears must now concentrate on ensuring they make the finals. Despite clearly being the fifth-best side in the competition, they now find themselves level on points with Templestowe, whom they face this weekend. Despite a massive gap in percentage, the Dockers have shown a great ability to make games tight and low scoring, meaning the Basin may not able to use their superior attacking prowess.
The Basin should still finish in fifth, however the Dockers could make things really interesting.
Cougars cooked
It was a tough weekend for the Cougars in Division 4. Coldstream went down once again by a slim margin, this time to Forest Hill, whilst Kilsyth copped a belting from the Whitehorse Pioneers that gave its finals aspirations a big dent.
Coldstream fans should be able to see the light however – coach Chad Rogers has reshaped the list, looking to a youthful future.
Despite a win-loss record of 4-10, the Cougars have shown that their best footy can well and truly match it with the sides at the pointy end of the table.
If they can find some more consistency and develop that wonderful habit of winning the close ones, the Cougars will be climbing back up the table quickly. They will look to build around Darcy Carrigan who yet again showed his class, kicking five goals in a best on ground showing.
Kilsyth fans will be scratching their heads feverishly as their season took another dip. A chance to take a top four scalp and strengthen its finals ambitions has yet again passed by as they were on the wrong end of an eight-goal haul from Andrew Padbury, things coming to a head in the third term, when Whitehorse piled on 11 goals to none.
The Kilsyth Cougars have now given Fairpark a big chance to take first blood in their race to apply pressure on the Zebras in fourth place.
Kilsyth, like their Cougar counterparts, will be looking at developing consistency of its own over the next few months as it searches to find the solution to its problems.
Kilsyth’s best footy is even better than that of Coldstream’s thus making consistency a bigger frustration. Kilsyth will have the added benefit of the re-structure next season, ensuring it’ll be one of the top sides in the division, but the faithful won’t be happy with that for long.
All views expressed in this article remain those of the author and not of the Eastern Football League or its affiliated clubs.